James T. Rowan Jr.
Research Statement
My dissertation research at Georgia Tech focuses on the study, design, implementation
and evaluation of computer-based tools to enable older adults to “age in place.” These
tools support the independence of a person as they age and in doing so provide the
quality of life associated with a non-institutional home environment. This research has
examined this challenge from multiple points of view that include determining the
causes of aging in place failure, the challenge of designing technology in the home, the
challenge of designing technology for an aging population and the challenge of
conducting field studies in the home.
Peace of Mind and Aging in Place
To uncover the causes of aging in place failure I undertook a series of interviews at
Wesley Woods, a geriatric specialty facility that offers services that range from outpatient
care to assisted living through terminal care. In interviews with Wesley Woods staff,
administration, counselors and pastors I discovered that not only is a move to
institutional living always accompanied by a “profound sense of loss” but also that the
death of a spouse stands out as a prominent initiating cause primarily due to its
profound effect on the surviving spouse’s support network. Additionally the death of a
spouse highlights in stark relief the effect of the distance that so typically separates
elders and their adult children. The death of a spouse not only deprives the surviving
spouse of a support network, it also deprives the adult children of the view into the home
once provided by the second parent. The adult child loses the ability to determine if
“things at home are going o.k.” or, in other words, it deprives the adult child of the
“peace of mind” of knowing that things are normal at home. This lack of peace of mind
drives the adult child to suggest a move to institutional living where, at least someone is
“keeping an eye out” for the aging parent.
Design of the Digital Family Portrait
Building on the idea that the lack of “peace of mind” drives the decision about a move to
institutional living, my dissertation research pioneered the design of the Digital Family
Portrait as a means of re-instating the “peace of mind” required by the adult child.
Simply stated, the Digital Family Portrait provides a ambient display of the level of
activity occurring in the aging parent’s home that is viewed in the adult child’s home. The
most recent design can be seen in Figures1 & 2 below. This design was arrived at by using
an iterative design process to navigate a constellation of competing issues of privacy,
personal dignity, personal representation, acceptability in the home and intrusiveness.
While there are a great number and variety of sensing techniques available, some far
more intrusive than others, I decided to design around the least personally intrusive
technique and test for benefits to both parties. The chosen technique does not require
the parent do anything different in their lives. They do not have to wear anything and
there is nothing for them to interact with. At the simplest level, activity monitors detect
room to room movement akin to a traditional security system. The adult child is not
required to interact with the ambient display that provides awareness of the level of
activity in the parent’s home but, if more detailed information is desired, a deeper level
of interaction is possible.
Figure 1: Ambient display of the Digital
Family Portrait
Figure 2: Detail screen of the Digital Family
Portrait
The year-long field trial of this final design yielded surprising results. The use of the
display did not negatively impact the regular rhythm of connectedness between parent
and child. The parent, even though there was no physical manifestation of the technology
in her home, reported feeling “less lonely knowing that someone was watching.” The
adult child used the display in imaginative ways to increase their peace of mind. Judging
from the number of papers that now reference this work, the Digital Family Portrait has
had a large impact on the aging in place research community. Additionally, it has had a
large impact on the broader media forms with its inclusion in multiple national
television news segments, appearance in print media, in radio news segments and its
presence on the web.
I began the design process with the idea of using a picture in a frame as an appropriate
display for the home environment. It solved several problems at once. It was an object
already found in the home, it was an object that already had an appropriate placement in
the home and it was an object that was already an accepted form of remote personal
representation for display in a family member’s home. By co-opting the area of the frame
as a place for the presentation of information, a picture in a frame could be an acceptable
remote display.
Digital Family Portrait Design Evaluation
Mixed methods were used for evaluation of this interface and was done in stages that
coincide with the design iteration cycles. The first field trial of the design were
completely wizard of oz simulation. I conducted daily interviews to simulate sensors,
built the display built by hand and put it up on the web to be viewed by the participants.
From the first field trials I learned that the selection of representative icons was critical
and, if poorly chosen, they could distort the intended meaning. Finally, these early trials
showed that our idea of perfectly symmetrical reciprocity, where both participants see
similar displays of the same criteria, was flawed and should be replaced with the idea of
balanced display reciprocity which takes into account the interests of each of the
participants. To resolve the difficulties with representative icons that were discovered in
the early field trials I used computer-based laboratory experiments in conjunction with
paper-based questionnaires.
Based on the results of the first field trial and the representative icon investigation, I
designed a second version of the Digital Family Portrait (the version seen above). I wrote
the software necessary to produce the requisite ambient and detail displays at the adult
child’s home and selected sensors for use in the aging parent’s home as well as the
software needed to collect the sensor firings as they occur and then transmit these firings
to the remote display software in the adult child’s home ambient display. Once I
identified a pair of participants, I placed the sensors in the home of the parent, installed
the software in both the parent’s home and the adult child’s home. This system, once
operational, collected activity data for a period of a year. For a 6 week period during the
year, interviews were conducted and daily diary entries were made by both participants
to determine how the participants communicated before and during the field trial to
determine what effect the presence of the Digital Family Portrait would have on that
communication. A final testament to the usefulness of this interface is that the
participants continued to use the Digital Family Portrait after my research was complete
and the monetary support for the internet service was discontinued.
Future Work
For the Digital Family Portrait, the next step is to do multiple field trial deployments to
discover if my initial discoveries hold for a larger set of parent/child pairs. Expanding its
use within the family, making the Digital Family Portrait available to multiple children
may have the affect of spreading the responsibility for “keeping an eye out on Mom” that
now typically falls on the family member who lives the closest. Expanding its use to other
home environments, such as naturally occurring retirement communities (NORCs)
present an interesting possibility. With a NORC, community members, not necessarily
family members, will look out for each other which may change some of the assumptions
about the design.
Finally, the Digital Family Portrait can be viewed as a social communication device that
is appropriate for providing peace of mind for the adult child of an aging parent.
Realizing that the aging parent’s grandchildren live with the adult children and that,
when geographically close, grandparents play an important role in the grandchildren’s
lives then what is an appropriate support mechanism for social communication between
grandchildren and their grandparents?
Future Research Collaboration
I intend to remain active in this line of research, assuming that it fits within the goals of
the department. By maintaining the many connections I have built with the research
community here at Georgia Tech I can continue my collaboration on future joint NSF
proposals.